I finally did this lovely painting by Ukrainian artist Victor Zaretsky (maybe Viktor with a “k”? not sure which version is preferred) (1925-1990), “The Fall”, from the Ukrainian laser cutter, Ihor Reshetnikov (Dreamton, via Etsy). (Puzzle available at etsy.)
I found this painting discussed on Reddit, under the title “Autumn Wind” — you can see the wind in the piece, with the person’s hair or scarf blowing back, and the scudding, swirling clouds in the sky. The art is lovely — I really liked the trees, the path, and the lone figure walking, probably a woman, maybe carrying a baby? Sadly I couldn’t get a great picture of the front finished puzzle; the lighting and the google phone made it all somewhat washed out and orange-y. The almost-finished photo gives truer colors, although as usual, the camera picks up a lot of distinctive detail that is not really as obvious to my human eyes on the puzzle itself.
Ihor’s whimsy designs are also really charming — his whimsies are clever, and I like the sort of formalistic, circular placement of the whimsies in the grid of regular puzzle pieces — contrasting with a sort of random placement as many laser cutters do. The wood was not the greatest quality, but frankly I’m amazed he’s able to do this work at all. I also enjoyed the geometric cut style — it’s not just straight edges, but includes lots of little variations in the pieces, slight angles or curves, so false fits are not a problem even when it’s hard to distinguish visual differences in darker sections.
On the back of the poster, Ihor also includes a really helpful grid of the piece layout and of the whimsies. I didn’t use it, but if you’re really stuck, that would be helpful!
First puzzle of the new year. (-:
